Pineapple Guava - Recipe

[Catherine, The Herb Lady]

Hi Folks,

Our pineapple guava has been giving us a lot of fruit this month, so I went looking for things to do with them other than eat fresh.  So I made up some jam and it is pretty wonderful.

I adapted a couple of references I found on the internet.

Adjust the ingredients up or down according to how much pulp you have.  A lot of references say 'strain' but I wanted the bits in it.

Harvesting the fruit is easy - if it is on the ground it is ripe!  We noticed in years gone by that pulling one off the tree resulted in under-ripe 'green persimmon' type taste - ugh.

Cut in half and use spoon to scoop out - you may wish to use acidulated water to keep the browning at a minimum.  I also decided next time to use a processor to cut the pulp up before cooking, but I did use my immersion blender after it was cooked and before canning and that worked nicely.

Also some darkening of the fruit because of seeds is acceptable to us - it can be a choice.

Pineapple Guava Jam

2 cups of pulp

1 1/2 cup of sugar (personally I use organic can sugar)

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

If you decide to use acidulated water while prepping the pulp, drain well.  No water is needed as the fruit and sugar produce quite a bit of liquid.

Place all in a sauce pan with a cover.  Bring up to boil, then lower to low simmer, stirring occasionally for 35 minutes.

Water bath process for 15 minutes.

I got 2 1/2 cups out of this recipe.

Enjoy!

[Catherine, The Herb Lady]

You are welcome, Jacq.  It is a beautiful evergreen plant.  I think you will enjoy it for the many qualities it will bring to the garden.

[Jeff Reich and Farraday Newsome]

How old is your tree Catherine? We still only get the flowers, no fruit, and I'd say our tree (actually a chest-high shrub) is about three years old now. We have lots of bees of a variety of types, so I don't think it is a pollination issue - hoping it is just too young.

[Catherine, The Herb Lady]

Hi Jeff and Farraday,

I think our trees are about 12+ years old, so, yes maybe a little young yet.  We got 2 because at the time it was suggested they fruit better with some pollination although they are categorized as self-pollinating.  I think we did not get fruit until the trees (and yes they are shrubs) were as tall as us.  The fruit is sometimes hard to see while maturing too!

Hopefully you get fruit next fall.